U-Florida Shifts Into Higher Gear With SEC

AUSTIN, TEXAS—John FitzRandolph
says that about 80 percent of BeckTV’s
work is systems integration for TV stations.
However, he’s added that, “We’ve been
dancing around the sports business for
several years and we’re seeing that sector
as a growth area.”

That means the Austin, Texas-based company’s
recent install at the University of
Florida was not only another step forward,
but also notable for other reasons, said FitzRandolph, vice president and senior engineer
for the firm.

For BeckTV, it represented deeper entry
into a budding market; for the university,
which had been using its in-house production
facility for GatorVision streaming media
platform at its sports venues, as well as
Gainesville, Fla.’s PBS station, the upgrade
ushered in the era of ESPN’s new SEC
Network, which is slated for a mid-August
launch.

University of Florida students try out the new master control at the school’s facility,
which was upgraded by BeckTV.

FROM THE TOP
BeckTV’s original install
at the University of Florida
was in 2012, to set up the
controls for its GatorVision
video boards at six of its
sports venues and facilitate
streaming coverage of its
events. Then along came
the SEC Network, and it was
time for the company to revisit
Gainesville.

“They knew that they
couldn’t handle the SEC
Network’s technical requirements,
too, with just one
control room,” said FitzRandolph,
“so we added a second control room
with enhanced facilities. That allowed its engineers
to produce three shows/streams to
three different venues simultaneously.”

That means that the University Athletic
Association staff, in conjunction
with the university’s College of Journalism,
worked with Brad Noblitt, the director of
engineering at the college, and his staff to
develop a plan for the facility upgrade.

The idea was to be able to produce an
SEC game broadcast, as well as video for
the Daktronics scoreboard at Ben Hill Griffin
Stadium or from any of the university’s
other venues, while also producing
streaming video for
any other event, like baseball
or volleyball.

The University of Florida
install represented “the second
time (after a similar
project at Brigham Young
University) that we had updated
multiple venues that
were all connected by fiber
in one control room. That’s
becoming the norm,” said
FitzRandolph. “Manufacturers
are starting to build to
that solution.”

In 2012, the GatorVision
project entailed routing, switching,
multiviewers, replay, graphics, etc., according
to FitzRandolph. The recent update
called for the addition of a second control
room, which includes a Grass Valley
Kayak 2.5 ME, Imagine Communications ZP2-HD12-GX for terminal and multiview;
three Sony HD-PMW 400 cameras, bringing
that complement to eight (three of which
have Fujinon lenses); three Telecast fiber
transceiver systems with the CopperHead
G3200; an RTS ADAM intercom system;
an additional 360 Systems content server
playback system; Ross XPression graphics
system; with consoles by Beck Associates.

ALL CONNECTED
BeckTV held its final walkthrough in
mid-July, when it completed final work for
the upgrade. The university’s control room
“was ready because of all of the venues
they broadcast from and the fiber, so Brad
really had a jumpstart,” FitzRandolph said,
adding that “the installation has become
the template for the other SEC schools.”

The primary reason for that jumpstart
is that the university operates Gainesville’s
PBS affiliate, WUFT-TV, and its two sub-PBS
channels, Create and World; and GatorVision,
from the same router. In addition, the
University of Florida operates WRUF-TV, a
24-hour weather channel, and the College
of Journalism’s 5 and 6:00 newscasts are
switched out of another control room with
its own studios.

In other words, it’s not your typical university
setup.

Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, home to SEC’s
Florida Gators

“When GatorVision went online in
2012, it was to support the venue video
boards plus streaming productions. The initial
goal was to get everything connected
and online then,” said Noblitt, noting that
the department produced 70 games of various
sports that first year and 75 last year.

Then came the SEC Network. “And we
had to look at our current infrastructure
and see how we could support the new
demands, as well as our videoboard shows
for the UAA,” he said.

Noblitt, who used to freelance with the
mobile companies, had experience with remote
trucks and knew what the next step
for the university would be. “We split our
control room much like a duel truck is set
up, so we could support two independent
programs using the existing infrastructure,
for the SEC and the Daktronics GatorVision
feeds,” which are routed via fiber on
campus, then on to the SEC Network via
AT&T’s network.

Beck was the total integrator for the initial
install, which made the company the easy
choice to handle the upgrade. “They knew
our equipment,” said Noblitt, “and they were
touching the routers while we were on the
air with our PBS affiliates. That’s not easy,
since everything is interconnected here.”

TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES
FitzRandolph feels that the University of
Florida’s upgrade serves as a template for
other colleges that need to upgrade to accommodate
new sports networks.

“But the most interesting thing [at the
university], versus similar installs, is that it
has a real drive to use its students to operate
the equipment, and the station is using
the facility to train and develop them,”
he said. “At most college stations, they hire
industry veterans. Brad has a different approach.

“This story may be much bigger than
just University of Florida one day soon,”
FitzRandolph said. “Its facility looks like a
TV station and smells like a TV station. And
if the SEC Network is successful [the new
network is trying to find distribution deals],
I think you’ll see more networks popping
for other conferences, especially now that
streaming is available.”

For Noblitt, it’s really a very simple game.

“Our audio is the same, our video is the
same. We’re teaching our students every
aspect of the industry,” he said. “We didn’t
want to reinvent the wheel. We saw what
we had and made it work for two different
clients. And this was our window to
do it.”